1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed toward devices with data displays, and particularly toward touch-based display devices which simultaneously display two data pages.
2. Background Art
Devices which display different virtual pages of data are, of course, well known. (A "virtual page" as used herein refers to a two dimensional representation of data, where the two dimensions may be greater than the size of the portion of the screen available to display it so that only a portion of such data representation is visible in a display screen at a given time. In a database, each field may be visually represented by its own virtual page.) For example, personal computers can be used to display different data in different "windows", where the virtual pages of the data in one or more of the "windows" are larger than the windows. To view different portions of the virtual pages in the "windows", the user must scroll or pan through the page (where "scrolling" the virtual pages involves changing which portion of the data representation is visible on the display screen.) Also, where it is desirable to change the size of a "window", the user can "click and drag" a side of the "window" to change move that side and, effectively, change the size of the area displayed in that "window".
In some such prior art displays, particularly used with data tables, a single "window" may be provided but with several columns of data, with each column displayed only up to a line separating one column from an adjacent column. The user may use a mouse to "click and drag" these separating lines to increase the width of the display of one column and decrease the width of display of the adjacent column. Such a prior art display is shown in FIG. 1, in which a mouse can be used to position a cursor at the sides 20 of the column headings 22 to click and drag the sides 20 of the headings 22 and similarly change the width of the data column displayed therebeneath. As shown at side 20', a double pointing arrow has been displayed when the cursor is positioned at the side 20' whereby the mouse may be used to "click and drag" that side to change the width of the adjacent columns.
In addition to personal computers, however, small hand-held devices with display screens are becoming increasingly more common in a wide variety of uses. For example, small hand-held computers are common with small displays (commonly called "personal assistants" or "palm held computers"). Similar "communicators" having cellular communication capabilities and also having computer capabilities with small displays are also in use. Typically, these small portable devices do not and cannot conveniently have conventional input devices such as a mouse. Therefore, user interfaces such as described above with respect to FIG. 1, which have their own problems (e.g., resizing using the above are highly error-prone since users can often unintentionally cause a resize to occur and they can be difficult to control), are not at all suited for these devices.
In many such small devices, therefore, the small displays have touch-sensitive or touch-responsive display screens which sense when a certain area of the screen is touched and respond, typically by changing the display on the screen, based on the area of the screen which is touched.
With such small devices, however, there are significant limitations on how much data can be displayed on the screen. First, the limitation on the size of the screen itself (generally it must at least be smaller than the small device itself) can make it difficult if not often impossible to show the entire virtual page on the screen. Of course, even if the data could be shown in text size small enough to fit on the screen, it might be too small to be reliably read by the user (particularly given the relatively low resolution typically provided for such screens). Further, when two different groups of data are simultaneously shown (e.g., a table representation of data such as a list of names and associated phone numbers and/or addresses), the problem is exacerbated by the need to then fit two different virtual pages on the already small screen.
Given these problems, it is particularly important in such devices that the user be able to scroll over the virtual pages. It is also desirable to be able to resize the different areas in which the different virtual pages are displayed so that the user can focus on, and adequately see, a particular page at a given time depending upon the user's needs at that time.
To address the above, different touch-sensitive display controls have heretofore been used.
For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a touch-sensitive screen has been used to display portions of two different virtual pages 30, 32 adjacent one another along a separating line 34. Touch-sensitive areas 36, 38 are provided along the bottom of the displayed page portions with triangular arrow indicators 40, 42. By tapping the left area 36 (with the indicator 40 pointing to the right), a user can cause the separating line 34 to be moved to the right, thereby showing more of page 30 and less of page 32. Conversely, by tapping the right area 38 (with the indicator pointing to the left), a user can cause the separating line 34 to be moved to the left, thereby showing more of page 32 and less of page 30. Scrolling side-to-side in the pages 30, 32 (to see non-displayed portions to either side of the page portions displayed) is not readily permitted, however. Along the right side of the screen, touch-sensitive areas 44, 46 are provided and may be tapped by the user to cause the screen to simultaneously scroll up and down on both virtual pages.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 3, a touch-sensitive screen similarly has been used to display portions of two different virtual pages 30', 32' adjacent one another along a separating line 34'. Touch-sensitive areas 50, 52 and 54, 56 are provided beneath both of the pages 30', 32' to allow side-to-side scrolling in each page, and each may be tapped by the user to scroll left (tapping area 50 for page 30' or area 54 for page 32') or right (tapping area 52 for page 30' or area 56 for page 32'). A similar configuration is provided along the side of the page 32' for scrolling up and down on both virtual pages 30', 32' such as discussed above with respect to FIG. 2. Resizing the pages 30', 32' on the screen is not readily permitted, however.
While the FIGS. 2 and 3 prior art configurations work reasonably well as intended, they each have limitations as also mentioned. Further, it would be difficult to modify or combine those configurations to allow both scrolling and resizing given the conflicting desires to maximize page display areas and minimize screen areas taken up by such peripheral functions (i.e., the purpose of the screen is to convey information to the user through the displayed pages in the screen whereas the mentioned touch-sensitive areas are merely peripheral to that in that they simply help to select what is displayed). Of course, the desire to minimize the screen space used for the peripheral functions is also in conflict with the reality that the touch-sensitive areas for those functions must be large enough to accommodate users with large fingers. Peripheral functions cannot be squeezed into a small area without running the risk that many if not all users will have a difficult time pressing just exactly the right area to properly operating the device according to their wishes. Further, given that the many users of such devices will have widely varying computer skills, and may operate a particular device with widely varying familiarity for that particular device, it is important that all such peripheral functions be intuitive so that the user will readily understand what touching particular areas will do.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.